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#GuestPost: Katy Cannon, author of HOW TO WRITE A LOVE STORY, on why she writes about love

When I first learned about this book, my mind just about exploded with joy. As you might know, I love reading about love, and I have a whole other blog just dedicated to romance novels called Love in a time of Feminism. Love stories are my thing. I mean, I love other genres, too, but I’m one of those people that thrills at the first hints of a blooming romance, even in the most dystopian circumstances. I can read books without it, but they won’t speak to my soul as much.

So yeah, I was pretty excited to hear about How to Write a Love Story by Katy Cannon, which stars a teen girl who agrees to help finish her grandmother’s latest romance novel but doesn’t feel qualified having never been in love. Just the title was enough for me to become a crazed fangirl.

The book was so much fun for me to read, especially having the context I have with regards to romance. I loved how it showed romance novels in such a positive and open light, combating the common view that romance is frivolous. I’ll be sharing my review soon on my romance blog (seems fitting), so keep an eye out for that!

Why write about love?

I’m always surprised when someone tells me they don’t like books (or films) about love. In my opinion love – romantic love, family love, friendship, whatever form it takes – is the one thing all humans have in common. We’ve all, at some time, had a connection with another person.

It’s also one of the most interesting things about us.

How we relate to and behave towards other people is, in lots of ways, the essence of who we really are. And whether that interaction takes place in person, via social media or messaging, or even a reaction to something written by a person hundreds of years ago, it can tell us things about ourselves that we might never have learned on our own.

Of course, our interactions with others are also one of the biggest causes of conflict in our lives. Arguments with our siblings or parents, misunderstandings between friends, the uncertainty of a new relationship – most of us experience these in our lives. And really, even if you take on themes like violence and murder, or betrayal or espionage… it all comes down to people dealing with other people. In fact, almost every story ever told does – even ones about animals or aliens often anthropomorphize their characters.

For me, writing about friendship and love is a way of exploring those connections through stories that can resonate with my readers, and have the potential for things to work out well for my characters. (I’ve always been a fan of the happy ending – there are enough unhappy endings in the real world for my liking, so I prefer to enjoy fictional endings as much as I can.)

And as for romantic love… finding that particular connection with another person can be one of the most intimate, rewarding, confusing and risky things we ever do – especially as a young adult, still discovering who we want to be, let alone who we want to be with.

Figuring that sort of thing out… well, that’s a story I’m interested in telling.

So when people ask me if I just write about mushy romantic stuff, I tell them that actually I write about people. Just like almost every other author out there.

About How to Write a Love Story by Katy Cannon

Published by: Stripes Publishing

Publication date: May 3rd 2018

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Tilly Frost has grown up reading her grandmother’s bestselling romance novels – so when the one and only Beatrix Frost is taken ill, Tilly finishes writing her latest work. Then Tilly agrees to start the next book. But what is her gran hiding from her? And how can Tilly write a heart-pounding romance when she’s never been in love? Can she turn her school crush into something more? One thing Tilly should know is that the course of true love never did run smooth…

About Katy Cannon

Katy was born in Abu Dhabi, grew up in Wales, went to university in Lancaster, spent a few years splitting her time between London, Hertfordshire, and an assortment of hotels across the world. She now lives in a little market town not far from Cambridge. She has a husband, two children, a goldfish, and far too many notebooks.

Katy likes to write stories about the importance of friends and family, and especially those friends who become family. She considers herself most fortunate to have been blessed with an abundance of all three.

As a teenager, Katy was constantly in trouble for reading when she should have been doing something else. These days, she mostly gets in trouble for dreaming up new stories when she should be writing the ones she’s already working on.

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